Top tips to protect yourself against scams

A scam is an illegal plan for making money, often by deceiving someone to gain their personal data or money. Scams can try to reach you in a number of different ways such as:

Emails

Post

Phone calls

Text messages

Face to face

Online

Many scammers may try to target students due to their limited experience of dealing with money and other responsibilities that come with newfound independence such as organising accommodation. Scammers also know that students may be more likely to take note of good deals or be from abroad.

Examples of scams

Some scams you might come into contact with could include:

Phishing emails may ask you to confirm or log in to a website with your details and can often appear to be from your bank.

Fake accommodation rentals may ask you to send money for rent payment and deposits but when it is time to move in the landlord can’t be found

Online scams can con you out of money by using fake websites and getting into your computer

Fake job adverts can be used to collect your information or ask you to pay for fake police checks, admin fees or training

Top tips to avoid being scammed

Be secure online- use different passwords, don’t open strange looking attachments from people you don’t know and install antivirus software on your computer.

Does something seem too good to be true? It probably is. Don’t hand over any details without checking something is genuine.

Check the source of the information- if the email address isn’t how a company have emailed you before it may be a phishing email. Your bank and Student Finance will never ask for your PIN number or password.

See accommodation up front and do research on the landlord or letting agent to ensure they are legitimate before you pay anything for a deposit.

If you are from abroad and receive a call about your immigration status or asking you to pay a fine or send a payment, even if they have details about you such as your passport number and threaten cancellation of your visa, do not give out any personal information or send any money. Contact your International Student Adviser.

If you are contacted to donate money to a charity, make sure it is registered and authentic with the Charity Commission. You should also check the collection is authorised by contacting the charity or looking them up.

The Pompey Messiah explored the impact of Handel’s Messiah on the culture of Portsmouth in the early 1800s through two exhibitions, a public lecture and the recreation of a performance that was first given in Portsmouth in 1812.

Hassan Zaidi, a PhD student in the Centre for Healthcare Modelling and Informatics has won a place on the Care Innovation Challenge. Only 12 teams have been selected to participate in the programme, which aims to help address the challenges faced by the care sector in the face of a rapidly ageing population, through selecting the people and teams with the most practical and elegant ideas and solutions.

Hassan will be attending a ‘Hackathon’ this weekend in London, and will be receiving support and mentorship from industry leading experts to help develop his ideas. The best ideas will be selected to present to a panel of judges at the Cabinet Office in March, for the chance to win further funding and support to start putting ideas in to practice.

Grant will shed light on complex geologyFebruary 2

Geologist Dr Catherine Mottram, of the University of Portsmouth, has won NERC funding to join a large geological study on Canada’s Arctic west coast.

The west coast of North America has witnessed a complex series of geological events as many fragments of the earth’s crust have smashed into the continent over the last 300 million years. Faults accommodate movement during tectonic plate collision and host many gold deposits.

Catherine and colleagues will survey and collect samples from key faults of economic importance in the Whitehorse area of the Yukon Territories as part of the Geological Survey of Canada’s £115m Geomapping for Energy and Minerals programme. The scientists will need to use helicopters to reach inaccessible study sites in the mountains, where they expect to also encounter bears.

Catherine will bring back samples from Canada to the cutting-edge laboratory facilities at the University’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences to date the exact timing of fault movement on these important gold-bearing faults. The results are expected to shed light on the larger history of plate movement in the Yukon from the Jurassic to recent times.

Dr Mottram’s research focuses on using geochronology, geochemistry, structural geology, petrology, and metamorphic geology to quantify the timing, rates and nature of deformation from the micron- to mountain belt- scale.